What AWS EC2 is:
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a service that lets you run virtual servers (called instances) in the cloud. It provides scalable computing power for web applications, websites, and services. As a web developer, you can use EC2 to host and manage your websites or applications in a flexible and cost-efficient way.
What AWS EC2 is not:
It is not a hosting service with pre-configured environments like shared hosting or managed WordPress hosting. It doesn't handle things like database management, caching, or security by itself, though you can set those up with other AWS services. EC2 is just the compute power; you need to set up and manage everything that runs on it.
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
Is an Amazon Web Service that lets you run virtual servers, called instances, in the cloud. This services provides the following features:
Virtual Machines / Instances
Able to choose the operating system (Linux, Windows, etc.), CPU, networkor capacity, memory, storage.
Scalability
You can easily increase or scale down resources based on your application needs
For example, if your website traffic spikes, you can add more virtual serves to process the load, based on request, location, etc.
Pay-as-you-go:
You only pay for what you use. If you stop an instance, you stop paying for it (except for storage).
Use Cases:
Hosting websites or web applications.
Running backend services (APIs, databases, etc.).
Performing data processing or running batch jobs.
Flexibility:
You have full control over the virtual machine. You can install any software, configure the environment, and manage it like a physical server.
What AWS EC2 is not
It is not a hosting service with pre-configured environments or applications, like shared hosting or managed WordPress hosting. EC2 does not control directly things like database management, cache, Redis, or security by itself, though you can set those up with other AWS services. EC2 is a virtual machine, it is just compute power. There are another services in AWS you need to set up and manage everything else you need for you application (database, cache, etc).
Here’s what EC2 is not:
Not a Physical Server:
EC2 is not a physical machine you can touch. It’s a virtual server hosted in AWS’s data centers.
Not a Managed Service:
EC2 doesn’t control or handle software needed for your application in your Virtual Machine (EC2), or process directly, as backup or updates.
Not a Storage Service:
EC2 provides compute power, not storage. However, you can attach storage (like EBS volumes) to your EC2 instances.
Not a Static Hosting Service:
EC2 is a power machine, to process, is not optimized for hosting static websites (like HTML, CSS, JS files). For that, you’d use AWS S3 or AWS Amplify.
When to Use EC2?
- You need full control over the server environment.
- You’re running custom applications or software.
- You need to handle variable traffic and scale resources dynamically.
When NOT to Use EC2?
- You’re hosting a static website, use S3 instead.
- You want a serverless architecture, use Lambda instead.
- You need a managed database, use RDS instead.
